Sabine had been looking forward to camp all summer. Not only was it a chance for her to practice and learn new skills that would help her towards her future career in set design, it was two whole weeks away from her godawful foster home. Of course her foster parents weren't paying for this-she only got to go because she'd won a scholarship from submitting pictures of the sets she'd made for her school's plays. And she only got permission to go because her foster parents had decided they liked the idea of having her gone and not having to feed or look after her for two weeks more than they liked making her miserable.

Of course they couldn't let her be completely happy. When she'd arrived at camp to find out that she'd been deadnamed and put in a boys' dorm it was a major blow. But things had improved slightly when she'd met her counselor, who managed to take her completely by surprise. For one thing, he was one of the few adults she'd ever met who asked for her real name and pronouns to make sure that he was using them currently. For another thing…. Well, it sounded crazy, but he looked almost exactly like the jedi who had been like an adopted father figure to her in the VR Star Wars game she'd played almost five months ago.

She'd tried to forget the game. She really had. She knew that no amount of dreaming about the world would get her back there. And dreaming about the others coming to rescue her was only a recipe for heartbreak. She should know: she'd spent the last month of the school year following around a guy at her school just because he looked a little like Ezra with his blue hair, only for him to turn out to be a transphobic asshole and most definitely not her Ezra. So she'd mostly given up on trying to even look for the others. But now here was a guy who looked exactly like Kanan-could it really be him? Maybe it was wishful thinking, but with the way he'd reacted when she'd told him her name…

She told herself not to get her hopes up. Still, she found herself signing up for both of his classes, even though stage combat was something she doubted she'd ever use (she liked being behind the scenes, not performing) and she had a bad feeling that she was going to struggle with it. But she'd had an open class slot to fill anyways (set design, prop making, and stage makeup only filled up three of the four and she didn't feel like taking any of the other classes on performing or script writing), and she figured it would probably be for the best to take a class with someone she knew was at least an ally, even if he wasn't who she was hoping he'd turn out to be.

After signing up for classes and having lunch, the afternoon of the first day at camp was spent on a campus tour since a lot of the students attending the camp, including herself, hoped to attend here as college students someday. Campus tours could be kind of boring, but as it turned out Professor Jarrus had found a way to make it fun-he said he and the other counselors had put together a photo scavenger hunt to see which group could take the most and the best (which really meant silliest) pictures with various famous campus landmarks. It was kind of cheesy, but the other campers in Sabine's group got really into it so she found herself getting swept up into the excitement in spite of herself. And she was actually really proud when the results of the contest were announced over dinner after a slideshow of the groups' pictures and her group came in second place!

They were all riding high on their victory when they returned to their dorm to get ready for karaoke. Sabine wasn't much of a singer, but she was feeling confident enough in herself right now that she'd be willing to do a group number or even a duet if her dormmates wanted to. She went over to her duffel to find her brush-wouldn't hurt to freshen up before going down after running around outside all afternoon-and was surprised to find a gift bag inside. She doubted her foster parents would give her a gift for no reason (she was lucky to even get a gift on Christmas or her birthday), so how had this ended up in here? Had someone put it in her bag by mistake? But right there on the tag was written "Sabine'' in beautiful cursive, so she didn't see how it could before anyone else.

Steeling herself in case this was some sort of prank (she had been harassed before so she wouldn't be surprised), she very carefully opens the bag. She gasps when she looks inside to find an assortment of brightly colored items. And not just any items-sparkly nail polish, a flower hair clip, lip gloss, scented body spray, even a necklace with an owl charm on it! All things she'd been wanting to try but knew she'd get in trouble for if she spent what little money she did have on them. Yes, she knew she didn't need makeup or perfume to be a girl, but they were just little gender affirming things that might not seem like much to others but meant the world to her. And there was something more-maybe it was a coincidence, but the flower clip was blue and orange, just like her game avatar's original hair color, and the nail polish colors, white and hot pink, matched her avatar's armor! It felt like a sign-like the universe was telling her not to give up quite yet.

She didn't even realize that she'd started crying until she heard Professor Jarrus asking in a concerned voice, "Hey, Sabine, you okay?"

She quickly swipes at her tears, feeling embarrassed. "Y-Yeah, I just… Something really nice just happened. I got a surprise gift in my duffel bag somehow?"

"Really? Do you think maybe your parents might have put it in there for you as a surprise?"

"No, I-" Sabine was about to tell him that hell would freeze over before her foster parents brought her sparkly nail polish and mango-strawberry body spray. But then she realized that he hadn't said foster parents. He had said parents. As much as he resembled Kanan, was it possible? Was he really Kanan, and was he the one behind this? That might explain the matching of the colors to her avatar. She was about to ask him if he was behind this, but she saw a look on his face that was almost panicked-as if he'd said too much and regretted it. And maybe that made sense. Whether he was or wasn't Kanan, she knew from her babysitting jobs that playing favorites with the kids you were looking after (or even looking like you were) could cause problems, and fast. He'd given her an excuse that would make things easier for both of them so she'd use it-for now. But that didn't mean she wouldn't keep trying to find out the truth.

"Yeah," she finally says. "Guess it's a care package from home."

"Well that was nice of them-hopefully they sent things that you like?"

"Everything was perfect."

"That's good to hear." Even though he was acting like he knew nothing about it, Sabine couldn't miss that he seemed happier about that fact than a disinterested third party would be.

That night, after karaoke, Sabine painted her nails for the first time outside of the game with a little surprise help from Professor Jarrus (his explanation being that he'd painted his nails black a lot in college and had only stopped because it was frowned on for a professor.) As it turned out (like possible adopted father like daughter), Kaan wasn't the only one to deal with pushing dress code limits. He'd mentioned that the guy in charge of the camp being a tightass, and he had been right.

Even though there was nothing in the camp dress code against "boys" wearing makeup or nail polish, the camp director saw her wearing both at breakfast the next day and tried to tell her that she had to wipe off the lipgloss right then and remove the nail polish by the next day. She'd rather angrily wiped off the lipgloss-she couldn't risk losing her place here at camp, she could learn things here that would help her get a college scholarship. But word of what had happened quickly spread, and by dinner that night she couldn't find a person at camp who didn't have sparkly nails, including Professor Jarrus and the other counselors, and about half of the guys were wearing lip gloss (god only knew where they'd gotten it) in solidarity. There wasn't much the camp director could do in the face of this mass mutiny: he couldn't afford to lose so many campers and staff, and he couldn't get away with only punishing her without getting completely called out for discrimination, so finally he'd had to surrender.

"Nice job, rebel," Professor Jarrus had told her when the official announcement was made that anyone who wanted to was allowed to wear nail polish and makeup.

"Seems to me you know a little bit about rebelling yourself," Sabine had answered.

"Oh, you'd be surprised."

It was little moments like this that made Sabine almost positive that Professor Jarrus was Kanan, but there was some weird unspoken agreement between them that neither of them was going to bring it up, maybe because they were both afraid of being wrong. At least Sabine was, and it was possible that she was projecting that onto him. But it was hard to ignore the way he acted so parental towards her, like the way he was always so enthusiastic about the things she made in prop class and was so patient with her in stage combat class. And sometimes he seemed to be dropping hints that he knew her from before camp, like how when it rained one afternoon he'd taken their group puddle stomping outside (they'd all gotten scolded for it, but it was worth it), almost as if he remembered how much she enjoyed playing in the rain.

But the end of camp was nearing, and Professor Jarrus still hadn't said anything, and she was afraid that she was running out of time. What if he'd thought it was her but then decided it wasn't and they'd lose out on the chance of finding each other because of a misunderstanding? So she made up her mind on the second to last day of camp. Stage combat was always the last class of the day, so she was determined to confront him after class and find out once and for all if he was Kanan or not.

As it turned out, though, she never had to do that. She walked into stage combat class, her determination to find out the truth filling her to the brim, only to come to a standstill when she saw first a bin full of lightsabers and then-

Kanan. It was like he'd walked right out of the game into real life: pretty much every detail of him, right down to the armor and boots, was exactly like how he'd looked when she'd first met him. It took Hiccup saying, "Wow, Professor, you look super cool!" for her to realize that it was Professor Jarrus and not the game avatar come to life-although, in some ways, maybe they were the same thing.

"Not 'Professor' today," Professor Jarrus corrects him. "Today I'm going to be teaching you how to fight with lightsabers, which makes me your master and you my padawans."

"Sir!" Fred eagerly waves his hand in the air.

"Yes, young padawan?" Professor Jarrus answers with a smile-everyone knew that Fred was always full of questions.

"If you're a jedi, why aren't you wearing tabards and a robe?" Fred asks.

"Well you see, I was one of the only padawans to survive Order 66," Kanan explains. "I went into hiding, but now I'm passing on the jedi teachings to any force sensitive younglings that I find."

"Cool!" Fred beams at him, looking appeased by that answer.

"Everyone grab a lightsaber," Professor Jarrus instructs them. "And then form two rows of three. We've got a lot of work to do if you want to master the basic forms today. And I've got a prize for the person who does best."

There was no way that this wasn't Kanan, not after that backstory. Sabine, still slightly stunned at this turn of events, goes over to grab a lightsaber in a daze. She probably would have been tripping all over herself if the muscle memory from Kanan training her in the game hadn't kicked in. Apparently using a lightsaber-or darksaber, in her case-was like riding a bicycle: you could get a little rusty, but it always came back to you. And speaking of the darksaber…

At the end of class, Professor Jarus announced that Sabine had done the best with the day's exercise, and when no one voiced any arguments-Sabine had absolutely dominated at the practice duels-he presented her with a long, thin box. When she opened it, there, nestled in tissue paper, was an almost perfect replica of her darksaber. She looks up at Professor Jarrus with wide eyes, and there was a smile on his face that she knew better than almost any other.

"If you want to talk, volunteer to help me clean up from class," he whispers, so low that she only barely heard him.

Hardly daring to believe that this was happening, Sabine nods, just enough to show that she'd heard before the other teens in the class all crowded around her to see her prize. They were all very impressed, and it took a while before the majority of them had cleared out. Her dormmates offered to walk her back up to the dorm to drop it off, but she declined, telling them that Professor Jarrus had asked her to help clean up. That got the boys to leave quickly enough-none of them wanted to get volunteered for cleaning duty as well.

Once all of the others were gone she takes a deep breath, turning around, hoping against hope that she wasn't wrong. She knew in a moment that she wasn't. As if he already knew exactly what she needed (and she wouldn't be surprised if he did), his arms were already open. She wanted so badly just to run right into them, but first she had to know for sure.

"You're him, right?" she asks, trying to keep her voice from shaking. "You're Kanan?"

"It's me, Bean," Kanan answers, and that's all she needed to hear. She barely even remembered running to him, the next thing she knew she had her arms wrapped around him and he was hugging her tightly as she cried into his shoulder like a small child who'd been lost for a long, long time and finally found her way home.

"Sh… It's okay," Kanan says soothingly. "It's okay, I've got you."

"You were dead," Sabine whispers, trying desperately to form coherent sentences. "I watched you die, and then Ezra got taken away, and then I got pulled out of the game and I was told I'd never see any of you again and I had to go back to that awful foster home and-"

Her hands grip tightly into Kanan's shirt. "I thought I'd never find you, or that if I did you wouldn't want me…"

"Oh, Bean…" Kanan hugs her closer. "I can only imagine how scary that was. I'm so, so sorry you've had to go through it alone. But I'm here now, and I promise, I want you in my life-we all do!"

"We?" Sabine repeats, looking up at him in shock. No way, it wasn't possible-!

"Me, Hera, and Zeb-we've all found each other, and we're all living in a house together now and we've been getting certified to be foster parents in case we found you and you needed a home," Kanan explains. "Zeb and I were just certified, so if it's something you want- I mean, I know this is a big decision and I understand if you don't-!"

"Are you kidding me? Of course I want to live with you guys!" Sabine cries, hardly able to believe this-first she found Kanan, then she found out that he'd already found Hera and Zeb and they wanted her to come live with them? It was all a bit overwhelming, but she was completely fine with that since it was being overwhelmed by good things for once instead of being overwhelmed by terrible things like usual.

"You may want to meet the others before making your official decision," Kanan says, but she could see that he was just as excited about this as she was.

"I want to meet them, sure, but nothing could change my mind on this," Sabine answers with a rather wet laugh.

"How about tomorrow night?"

"What?"

"Meeting Hera and Zeb-they've been wanting to meet you ever since I told them that I thought you were our Sabine. I told them that I was going to try to find out today for sure, and they said if everything went well and your foster parents gave you permission then they'd like for us to take you out to dinner so we can see how we all get along out here. Does that sound like something you'd like to do?"

"It sounds great!" Sabine answers. "I'm sure my foster parents won't mind, they'll love an excuse to have me out of the house for another night, especially if they don't have to feed me."

"Well, go ahead and text me their number so I can make the arrangements," Kanan says with a concerned looking frown on his face. "And maybe… Maybe go ahead and text me your social worker's number too, if you have it. The sooner we can get to work on getting you out of there, the better I'll feel."

Sabine spent the rest of the camp in a jittery blur-mostly it was fine, now that she knew for sure that Professor Jarrus was Kanan she found herself sticking to him like glue, not wanting to let him out of her sight for fear that this would turn out to be a dream and he would disappear, and fortunately he didn't seem to mind-if anything she got the feeling that he felt the same way about her. And they'd gotten permission from her foster parents to let her go to dinner (it was easy as Sabine had thought it would be) so that was good. But she couldn't help but worry about what Kanan had said about seeing how everyone got along out here. She knew that Kanan liked her and wanted her, what if, for some reason, the others didn't? Even though they'd liked her in the game, what if things were different out here?

She needn't have worried. After closing ceremonies the next day (with lots of hugs and goodbyes from her dormmates, who had all promised to stay in touch) and Kanan checking her out of camp (he'd gotten a virtual copy of a permission slip signed by her foster parents to show the people at the pickup desk), they walked out to his car together. The fact that he let her choose the music for the ride over and kept her attention occupied with questions about herself-her likes, her dislikes, favorite shows and movies, how she felt about her classes in school-helped keep her anxiety at bay and she was grateful for that. The anxiety started to return once they'd parked at the restaurant (some Italian place she'd never heard of-it looked nice but not so fancy that she felt underdressed) and started to walk up to the door together. But almost as soon as they stepped inside a woman and a man sitting in the lobby who looked vaguely familiar stood up and started walking towards them. They met them about halfway and it was then that Sabine noticed the green markings on the woman's arms.

"Hera?" Sabine asks tentatively-for some reason it hadn't crossed her mind to wonder what Hera, or Zeb for that matter, would look like as humans since they obviously wouldn't be aliens in real life.

The woman nods in response, her bright green eyes-one of her few features that looked entirely the same as in the game-lighting up. "Sabine?"

"Y-Yeah…" Sabine suddenly felt shy. Hera was something of her role model: confident, daring, brilliant, while still being unflinchingly feminine. And wow, she was really pretty. It was kind of like meeting a movie star, or maybe even a superhero since Hera kind of reminded her of Captain Marvel. She wanted to say something cool or witty to impress her, so of course her brain was completely stalling out.

"You're wearing the flower I got you!"

"What?" Sabine was so caught up in worrying about what to say next that Hera speaking again caught her off guard.

"The hair clip," Hera clarifies. "I'm glad to see that you liked it, I wasn't quite sure what to get you but I thought maybe some things that you might not get at home…"

"O-Oh!" Sabine's hand automatically reaches up to touch the flower she'd pinned in her hair that morning without even thinking about it. "Everything in the bag was from you?"

"It was all Hera's idea," Kanan chuckles. "She wouldn't even tell me what was in it so when I saw you crying over it I got scared for a minute wondering what she'd gotten you!"
"Wait, she was crying? You didn't tell me that!" Hera shoots Kanan a worried look before turning back at Sabine. "Sabine, if there was anything hurtful or offensive that I put in by mistake I am so sorry-!"

"What? No!" Sabine cries. "It was perfect! It was actually the nicest thing that someone had done for me in a long time so I was just kind of overwhelmed…"

"Oh, Bean…" Hera whispers, starting to reach out to her but then hesitating. "I-Is it okay if I hug you?"

"I'd actually really, really like a hug," Sabine admits.

"Okay then." Hera smiles and wraps her arms around Sabine, who gratefully melts into the embrace. This was right. This was Hera, the best mom figure she'd ever had, who had taught her to be the kind of woman she could be proud of. This was her family. And speaking of family…
"Hey kiddo-did you forget about me?" the man standing next to Hera asks when Sabine finally pulls away from her. His tone was playful, but she could see that he actually looked a bit nervous.

"Zeb?" Sabine asks even though she doubted that it could be anyone else.

"Yep," the man laughs.

Sabine grins and impulsively hugs him too-this was a family reunion, after all-and although he froze for a moment he then pulled her into a warm, somehow extremely comforting hug.

"You're still ridiculously tall out here!" Sabine teases when he lets her go.

"Guess I am," Zeb laughs. "It's good to see you, kid."

"It's good to see you-it's good to see all of you," Sabine answers, looking around at all of them. "I almost can't believe that this is really happening…"

"I know it's a lot, but I promise that we're all here and this is really happening," Kanan reassures her.

"I'll try to believe that." Sabine gives him a small smile.

Just then, a hostess comes to get them and the conversation is put on hold until they're seated at a table in the back of the restaurant.

"Order whatever you like, sweetie, we're taking care of everything," Hera tells her with a warm smile.

"Thank you." Sabine gives her a grateful smile. "It's funny…"

"What's funny?" Zeb asks curiously.

"This kind of reminds me of when we'd all eat together in the Ghost, although I bet the food here is a lot better than the ration bars we usually ate," Sabine answers wryly.

"Don't remind me of those ration bars-I can't look at a protein bar or even a granola bar without feeling slightly sick anymore," Kanan groans.

"Speak for yourself, I liked them!" Hera protests.

"But I think we can all agree that our food got a lot better when we started letting Alex take over the galley whenever he was onboard," Zeb laughs, only for a sad look to cross his face.

"Alex… Have you found him?" Sabine asks slowly, but she had a pretty good idea that she already knew the answer.

"No," Zeb sighs, his shoulders sinking. "We haven't, and I'm starting to think-"

"We're going to find him," Kanan says firmly. "It's only a matter of time. We found each other because the force prompted me to go back to the testing facility at the same time as you, and we found Hera because of her dreams and leku markings appearing on her arms. Then we decided to get certified to be foster parents so we'd be able to take the kids in, and literally as soon as you and I were certified we found Sabine. Now it's only a matter of time before we find Ezra, and maybe there's just something we haven't figured out yet that needs to happen before we can find Alex!"

"Wait-what do you mean the force prompted you?" Sabine asks. "And those aren't just tattoos on Hera's arms?"

"There's a lot we have to catch you up on, Bean," Kanan answers. "Just promise you'll reserve judgment and not think that we're crazy until we've told everything?"

"Okay…" Sabine agrees slowly.

They were through their first round of drinks and half a basket of breadsticks by the time that the others had finished telling her the story of how they'd all found each other and about the weird side effects that they'd been having since the game. It did sound slightly insane, but she wasn't really one to talk, and when Kanan levitated the breadsticks basket about a foot off the table it was pretty hard to fight the evidence.

"So… The game's been affecting you in physical ways? How is that even possible?" Sabine whispers, shaking her head.

"We don't know," Kanan admits. "We're just as in the dark as you."

"What about you?" Zeb asks. "Have you noticed anything… Strange since the game?"

"I don't think so," Sabine answers. "But, I mean, I didn't have any really distinctive features or powers in the game? Except, y'know, my hair…"

"Well, that's probably for the best-physical changes are kind of unnerving," Hera says softly. "But, for the record, once you're living with us you're welcome to dye your hair however you like, if that's something you want to do."

"And if you still want to live with us after hearing all of this and we haven't scared you off," Kanan says, and she could hear the note of anxiety in his voice.

"Well…" Sabine fiddles with her napkin. "It's a lot to take in… But at the same time… I mean, I've dealt with a lot of weird and definitely worse things in the foster system. You guys are the best family I've ever had. So if you still want me…?"

"Of course we want you, Sabine!" Hera reaches over the table to squeeze her hand.

"It wouldn't be our family without you, Bean," Zeb adds.

"Okay then." Sabine lets out a small laugh. "I can't believe this is really happening…"

"I promise, we will do everything we can to get you home with us as quickly as we can," Kanan tells her. "No matter what it takes, we will bring you home. I promise."

Sabine still felt some anxiety when Kanan dropped her off at her foster parents' house later that night. She hugged him tightly, almost afraid to let him go because she knew that things in the foster system could get weird and political, so what would happen if somehow they were denied custody of her? Would she never see them again? But between Kanan and Zeb and soon Hera being certified they had a better chance. And besides, if they could somehow all find each other out here in spite of all the odds, she had the feeling that somehow, some way they were all destined to be together and things would work out.